"I disagree that needing the current role is a modeling problem. "
"We have 40 different web applications and a set of load balancers, so we need to have settings for the webservers like what port their nginx should listen on but the load balancer *also* needs to know these settings so that it can configure the pools for each node." This is a bit of a logical fallacy -- lots of folks using Ansible have a lot more than 40 different web applications, for one. Secondly, having variables like nginx_port would allow access to this via hostvars. All of this could be done with group_vars just fine without needing to know the path of the current role as a variable. I don't believe a role needs to know it's current name, because of all the vars/defaults/tasks/templates machinery allows finding those sub-paths without needing those things. This may just be more of a case of rethinking how you are modelling things in Ansible. On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 1:19 PM, John Anderson <son...@gmail.com> wrote: > I disagree that needing the current role is a modeling problem. I've > actually just ran into this problem, but I'm willing to hear better > solutions. > > We have 40 different web applications and a set of load balancers, so we > need to have settings for the webservers like what port their nginx > should listen on but the load balancer *also* needs to know these settings > so that it can configure the pools for each node. > > How do you store settings that are globally accessible but attached to a > specific role if you don't know what the current role is? > > For example our settings file looks like this: > > services: > anonweb: > repo: anonweb > version: upgrade_latest_packages > port: 8500 > nginx_port: 6005 > paths: > - / > > addressbookweb: > repo: AddressBookWeb > version: develop > port: 8765 > nginx_port: 6014 > paths: > - /addressbook > > So we configure a pool for all the nodes in the addressbookweb group to > listen on nginx port 6014, and then when a request to > /addressbook comes into the loadbalancer it routes to that specific pool. > But when we setup the addressbook nodes we also need > to configure nginx properly to listen on that port. > > So we do this by doing: > > services[current_role].nginx_port > > But do access current_role we had to set a variable for *every* role. > > > On Monday, December 30, 2013 8:34:55 AM UTC-8, Michael DeHaan wrote: > >> Matt's answer above is slightly incorrect. >> >> Things like "always_run" and such are keywords, not variables that are >> usable in scripts. >> >> http://ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_variables.html# >> magic-variables-and-how-to-access-information-about-other-hosts >> >> (The statement about their being other variables is not accurate and will >> be removed next time docs are pushed, I have that queued up right now) >> >> You should also look into facts: >> >> http://ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_variables.html#id17 >> >> I think if you need a variable that defines your current role, it's >> probably the sign of a modeling problem -- with a few possible exceptions. >> The role shouldn't have to know what it's name is to operate correctly. >> >> >> >> >> On Mon, Dec 30, 2013 at 10:35 AM, Matt Martz <ma...@sivel.net> wrote: >> >>> Here are the ones that I can recall and easily find in the source: >>> >>> vars >>> always_run >>> changed_when >>> delegate_to >>> failed_when >>> ignore_errors >>> inventory_dir >>> playbook_dir >>> register >>> >>> The vars variable, is a dictionary, that contains all of the above vars >>> as key/value pairs. >>> >>> inventory_file >>> inventory_hostname_short >>> inventory_hostname >>> ansible_ssh_user >>> hostvars >>> group_names >>> groups >>> defaults >>> environment >>> >>> Also, anything from --extra_vars, host_vars/, group_vars/, facts.d/, >>> register, etc... >>> >>> Some of this is mentioned on <http://www.ansibleworks.com/ >>> docs/playbooks_variables.html> , pay some special attention to < >>> http://www.ansibleworks.com/docs/playbooks_variables.html#id22> >>> >>> But to address some of your specifics: >>> >>> - current host >>> >>> inventory_hostname, and inventory_hostname_short >>> >>> - current group >>> >>> There isn't really a var that says, this is the current group being >>> acted on, but per host has a 'groups' var containing all groups that host >>> is a member of >>> >>> - current user >>> >>> Perhaps ansible_ssh_user ? >>> >>> - current task >>> >>> This is not exposed >>> >>> - current role >>> >>> This is not exposed >>> >>> -- >>> Matt Martz >>> ma...@sivel.net >>> >>> On December 30, 2013 at 8:54:53 AM, 9dev...@gmail.com (9dev...@gmail.com) >>> wrote: >>> >>> Does Ansible provide predefined variables to use in scripts? I am >>> looking for variables like: >>> - current host >>> - current group >>> - current user >>> - current task >>> - current role >>> etc. >>> >>> I have not found these variables among these from "gathering facts". >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Ansible Project" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to ansible-proje...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to ansible...@googlegroups.com. >>> >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "Ansible Project" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>> an email to ansible-proje...@googlegroups.com. >>> To post to this group, send email to ansible...@googlegroups.com. >>> >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Michael DeHaan <mic...@ansibleworks.com> >> >> CTO, AnsibleWorks, Inc. >> http://www.ansibleworks.com/ >> >> -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ansible Project" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to ansible-project+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to ansible-project@googlegroups.com. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/37134b03-c4e6-49df-91da-07e691d23310%40googlegroups.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ansible-project/37134b03-c4e6-49df-91da-07e691d23310%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ansible Project" group. 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